Hot yoga founder ordered to pay nearly $6.5M in damages

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The founder of Bikram yoga on Tuesday was ordered to pay nearly $6.5 million to his former legal adviser who said he sexually harassed and wrongfully fired her for investigating another woman's rape allegation.

The punitive damages are in addition to the $924,000 in compensatory damages that Bikram Choudhury must pay to his former legal adviser, Minakshi "Miki" Jafa-Bodden. That brings the total damages to about $7.4 million.

"This is a good day for women," Jafa-Bodden said in a statement following the Los Angeles jury's verdict.

Choudhury's attorney, Robert Tafoya, did not return calls for comment Monday or Tuesday.

Jafa-Bodden worked as head of legal and international affairs at Choudhury's Los Angeles yoga school from spring 2011 until March 2013, when she said she was abruptly fired from her six-figure position for refusing to cover up an investigation into a rape allegation.

"Jafa-Bodden faced retaliation and intimidation when she refused to stay silent about witnessing illegal behavior," her attorney, Mark Quigley, said in a statement.

Additionally, Jafa-Bodden said Choudhury sexually harassed and inappropriately touched her, and tried to get her to stay with him in a hotel suite.

Choudhury, 69, has built an empire around Bikram yoga, a rigorous, 90-minute routine performed in a room that can reach more than 100 degrees. The technique is taught at more than 650 studios worldwide and has drawn a throng of devoted followers.

Choudhury contends he is now nearly bankrupt.

Jafa-Bodden's wrongful termination lawsuit is separate from sexual assault lawsuits filed by six other women, five of whom accuse Choudhury of raping them. One of those lawsuits is in the process of being settled while the rest are set for trial later this year.

His attorneys have said he never sexually assaulted any of the women suing him and that prosecutors had declined to bring charges in their cases.

Mary Shea, one of the attorneys representing the women filing the assault lawsuits, said prosecutors never investigated the allegations and that just because charges weren't filed doesn't mean the women aren't telling the truth.

"These are all very brave women who've had the courage to stand up against very serious opposition and public scrutiny," she said. "If anything, this (verdict) has given them the confidence to go forward and speak their truth."

Choudhury experienced another major court loss in October when he lost an appeal to copyright his sequence of 26 poses and two breathing exercises.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the sequence used in hot yoga classes is a process intended to improve people's health, so copyright law does not cover it.

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Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/amanda-lee-myers.